Charlemagne & France : a thousand years of mythology / Robert Morrissey ; translated by Catherine Tihanyi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morrissey, Robert, 1947-

Series:

Laura Shannon series in French medieval studies

The Laura Shannon series in French medieval studies

Standardized Title:

Empereur à la barbe fleurie. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814--Influence.

Charlemagne.

Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814.

Legends.

Holy Roman Empire--Kings and rulers--Biography.

Holy Roman Empire.

Civilization, Medieval.

Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814--Legends--History and criticism.

Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814--Romances--History and criticism.

Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814--In literature.

Genre:

Romances.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxi, 391 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.

Edition:

English language edition.

Other Title:

Charlemagne and France

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, [2003]

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

"Charlemagne, claimed by the Church as a saint, by the French as their greatest king, by the Germans as their compatriot, by the Italians as their emperor, heads all modern histories in one way or another; he is the creator of a new order of things," wrote the historian Sismondi in 1821. In this fascinating book, available for the first time in an English translation, Robert Morrissey explores a millennium's worth of history and myth surrounding Charlemagne (768-814). Charlemagne's persona -- derived from a blending of myth, history, and poetry -- assumes a constitutional value in France, where for more than ten centuries it was deemed useful to trace national privileges and undertakings back to Charlemagne. His plasticity, Morrissey argues, endows Charlemagne with both legitimizing power and subversive potential. Part 1 of the book explores a fundamental cycle in the history of Charlemagne's representation, beginning shortly after the great emperor's death and continuing to the end of the sixteenth century. Part 2 discusses the remythologizing of Charlemagne in Renaissance and Reformation France through the late nineteenth century. At a time when a new Europe is being created and when France continues to redefine and reinvent itself, Morrissey's detailed study of how history has been reappropriated is particularly valuable.

Contents:

Part I. Between Myth and History

1. The Magic of Origins 3

Beginnings Revisited

Why Charlemagne?

Charlemagne: Elusive and Fundamental

Warrior and Protector: The Annales Regni Francorum

Wisdom Incarnate: Einhard's Life of Charlemagne

Notker: The Power and the Glory

The King and the Magnates: Hincmar

2. Poetic Space, Political Reflection 43

Poetry and History

The Chanson de Roland: A Fragile Equilibrium

The Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle: France and Saint-Denis

Emperor of the World

Galien: From Roncevaux to Constantinople

Charlemagne between France and the Empire

Fierabras and La Chanson d'Aspremont

Songs of Revolt

Karolinus: Return to the Carolingians

3. Rewriting History 85

Accumulating Glory: Philippe Mousket's Chronicle

Charlemagne According to Primat: The Grandes Chroniques de France

Charlemagne and Saint Louis

Knight: The Protector of Christendom

Charles VIII: A New Charlemagne

Italian Adventures

Francois I and the Dream of a European Union

4. A Call for Reality, a Need for Myth 112

Charlemagne the Humanist: Robert Gaguin

Against Fantastic History

Charlemagne the Civilizer

King of the French, Emperor of Others

A New Model of the King: Claude de Seyssel

Charlemagne's Abuses and Sins: Etienne Pasquier

The Golden Age and the Power of the People: Hotman

Charlemagne versus Saint Louis: The League

Henry IV: Exiting from History, Marginalizing Charlemagne

Part II. From Ubiquity to Oblivion

5. The National Past in the Classical Age 145

King of France: Hercules, Alexander, Augustus

Charlemagne as Absolutist

In the Service of French Expansionism

In the Service of Scholarship and Letters

The Survival of Roland

Charlemagne at the Court of the Sun King

An Epic Hero

Charlemagne and Louis the Great

Charlemagne as Jansenist

Charlemagne, the Dukes, and the Peers

6. Saving the Monarchy, Establishing the Republic 188

The Enlightenment and History

Idyll of the King of a Nation of Nobles: Boulainvilliers

Vertot and the Germanist Thesis

Du Bos and the Roman Legacy

Charlemagne as Usurper and Barbarian: Voltaire

Charlemagne and the Intermediary Bodies: Montesquieu

Savior, Legislator, Conqueror, and Bourgeois: Le Paige and Mably

Following Charlemagne's Example: Malesherbes

Making a Whole Nation Move: Le Trosne

Charlemagne to the Rescue of the Monarchy: Moreau

Constitution and Revolution: The Estates-General

The Old Knighthood and the Old Romances: Sainte-Palaye and the Count de Caylus

The Series Bibliotheque universelle des romans

A Rational and Sentimental Charlemagne: Gaillard and Stephanie-Felicite de Genlis

7. To Conquer and to Sing Praises 250

The Regeneration of Charlemagne's Throne: Napoleon

Marchangy and La Gaule poetique

The Founding Hero and the Sovereign People

Hugo/Shakespeare = Napoleon/Charlemagne

Charlemagne: A Creation of the Nation

8. Final Comments: The Waning Power of the Figure of Charlemagne 294.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-369) and index.

ISBN:

0268022771

OCLC:

50510760